Ranindu Dilshan Liyanage of Ananda College is leaving to Russia today to represent Sri Lanka at the FIDE World Cup 2021. Ranindu adds his name in golden letters in the Sri Lankan Chess history being the first player to participate in the strongest Chess Event in the World.
The FIDE World Cup is the event where the top 208 players in the world participate in the knock out basis in a period of 1 ½ months to find the best in the world. All the top Chess players in the world including the current World Chess Champion Magnus Carlson have confirmed their participation. The event starts with the Opening Ceremony to be held on 11th of July 2021 at Sochi, Russia and the 1st round starts on 12th of July 2021.
According to the new qualification system of FIDE on rating strength, Sri Lanka got the opportunity to enter a player into the World Cup 2021. The Sri Lanka National Selection Committee decided to have a selection trial between the National Chess Champion, Ranindu Dilshan Liyanage and the Sri Lanka Top ranked Harshana Thilakarathne. But, Harshana withdrew due to some health reasons giving the opportunity to Ranindu.
Ranindu won the Sri Lanka National Chess Championship in October 2020 convincingly. Then he came back strongly to win the Sri Lanka Chess Gran Prix 2021